"Parkland" (2013)

After reading articles on Parkland, the 2013 movie on what transpired at Dallas, Texas' Parkland Memorial Hospital following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, I was very much interested in seeing it.

Parkland was directed by Peter Landesman. Actors include Zac Efron, Tom Welling, Billy Bob Thornton and Paul Giamatti.

Unfortunately, I was underwhelmed by it.

The movie begins with the President's breakfast banquet in Fort Worth with intercut scenes of the hospital's staff getting ready for the day's work in treating emergency room patients and dressmaker Abraham Zapruder's morning in his office. These scenes are augmented by actual film footage of President Kennedy in Fort Worth.

The movie then goes into the President's arrival at Dallas Love Field and the motorcade through downtown Dallas (again, with actual film footage shot that day). These are intercut with Abraham Zapruder going into Dealey Plaza with his secretary to find a suitable spot to film the Presidential motorcade as it made its way down Elm Street.

Next, the movie goes into the assassination and the President's arrival at Parkland Hospital (incredibly, there is not a single mention that I could detect that Texas Governor John Connally was even in the limousine with Kennedy or that he was also wounded) and the efforts to save his life. Was it standard procedure for ER doctors and nurses to not wear surgical masks in 1963 while treating the President, but to wear them while treating his assassin? It was, according to this movie.

After this, the movie shifts to a dazed and upset Zapruder and his efforts to have his home movie of the assassination developed while under escort by Forrest Sorrels of the Dallas bureau of the Secret Service and Robert Oswald's reaction to finding that his brother Lee is accused of assassinating the President and Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit.

The movie does delve into the events of the weekend, including the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald while being moved to the County Jail.

Frankly, these events should rivet a viewer's attention, but instead, I found them to be dull as dishwater and not well-acted. The movie's score was also unremarkable. Plus, I saw some niggling factual errors. I'll just mention a couple.

First, Zapruder suffered from vertigo and needed his secretary to hold him on the pedestal in Dealey Plaza to steady him. In the movie, he climbs up alone as she stands below. In reality, she stood up on the pedestal with him and held him as he filmed the assassination.

Second, the movie shows Vice President Lyndon Johnson being hustled out of Parkland Hospital with his head and upper body held down by a swarming circle of Secret Service agents. In reality, Johnson walked briskly and upright out of the hospital with Secret Service agents a few feet away.

Those are two things immediately caught my attention. I am certain there are plenty more factual errors.

And, there was one glaring omission.

In his efforts to get his film developed, Zapruder went to television station WFAA with Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels, but found that they did not have the facilities to develop 8mm film. While there at the station, he was interviewed on live television by WFAA's Jay Watson. The interview was completely omitted from the movie.

Parkland does have its moments, but as a whole, it was very disappointing. The 1973 movie, Executive Action, starring Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan (a movie that rarely ever gets mentioned), is a lot more interesting, despite its low budget and that it was a fictional conspiracy story promoted by Mark Lane.

My grade: C.